Tag Archives: Abbas

Whew! We made it through 2011…perhaps just by the skin of our teeth. As we enter the new year let’s pause for a moment to reflect on the current “state of the world.” Since I’m not a prophet I won’t make any prognostications about what will happen in 2012. Those gloom and doom pronouncements are floating around all over the internet (usually with an agenda of some sort – sell products, solicit donations, attract devotees to some individual or group); it doesn’t pay to unduly focus on them or have a panic attack and go hide in a cave somewhere with ten years’ worth of food. Where to focus? I’ll tell you at the end of this article. Meanwhile, where are we at right now?

• The United States is now 15 trillion dollars in debt with 4.5 trillion added in just the last 3 years by a President and congress who love to spend other people’s money.

• Homegrown terrorism in the United States is growing. A Pew Poll of US Muslims has indicated some disturbing trends. Among native-born African-American Muslims, 11% have a favorable opinion of al-Qaeda, 16% say that attacking civilians can be religiously justified at least sometimes and 40% support extremism. In another study by Mordechai Kedar and David Yerushalmi, only 19% of United States’ mosques do not teach jihad violence and/or Islamic supremacism.

The Arab Spring has produced the very opposite of the “freedom” that media and government “talking heads” were promising, with Islamic pro-Shariah regimes coming into power.

• Iran has been flexing its muscles as it tested its first domestically produced nuclear fuel rod and tested a new medium-range surface-to-air missile, all in its race toward the goal of producing a nuclear weapon.

• A shocking article by Andrew McCarthy in Family Security Matters revealed that “that the Obama administration has turned to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood’sleading jurist, to mediate secret negotiations between the United States and the Taliban.”

Sheikh Yusuf-al-Qaradawi

I have written about al-Qaradawi before. He is, without exaggeration, evil incarnate! “Qaradawi urges that Islam must dominate the world, under a global caliphate governed by sharia.” His view of the Jews, not just Israel or “settlers”, is straight out of classic Islamic writings:

This is what is told in the Hadith of Ibn-Omar and the Hadith of Abu-Hurairah: “You shall continue to fight the Jews and they will fight you, until the Muslims will kill them. And the Jew will hide behind the stone and the tree, and the stone and the tree will say: ‘Oh servant of Allah, Oh Muslim, this is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him!’ The resurrection will not come before this happens.” This is a text from the good omens in which we believe.

Al-Qaradawi believes this? Some impartial mediator! What could the administration possibly hope to gain by the intervention of a barbaric monster who is still living in the seventh century? The scary thought is – perhaps their intent isn’t to advance American interests. America is the “great Satan,” you know.

• Finally, here in Israel, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is still working on unity talks with Hamas and other Palestinian factions. Why bother to come to the negotiating table with “evil Israel” when you can come to the negotiating table with a “terrorist organization.” On top of that, Abbas has just appointedGeneral Mahmoud Damra to the post of special presidential advisor for district affairs. Damra has the dubious distinction of being one of the 1,027 terrorists released as part of the Gilad Schalit exchange. He was directly involved in several attacks that claimed Israeli lives.

OK already, the state of the world is bleak, and 2012 won’t be a year for the faint-hearted. But, as I said earlier, to focus on the craziness will do nothing but make us crazy or depressed. Where to focus? On the One who is ultimately in charge of everything. His solution to the world’s dilemma is much too simple for most people to grasp but it’s guaranteed to work, whether on an individual or national level…and here it is…

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2Chronicles 7:14

That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

These words, written by King Solomon 3000 years ago perfectly describe the ongoing charade of the “peace process” between Israel and their Arab neighbors. History merely repeats itself; supposedly new initiatives are really not new at all. It has all been done before. Nothing is new under the sun.

The dizzying cycle is like a never-ending merry-go-round making the same circles again and again: war, truce, negotiations, Israeli concessions, agreements, accords, treaties, rejections (by Palestinians but blamed on Israel), back to war, and round and round we go. One would think that some sane world leader would assess the situation, say, “Enough already”, flip the switch shutting off the infernal carousel and bring us back to reality. What hasn’t worked in the past is doomed to failure again. But no! There is nothing new under the sun!

Author and blogger David Meir-Levi proves this point throughout his prolific writings. In my article of the week, Why Abbas Cannot Recognize Israel as a Jewish State, he shows that it is impossible for PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to ever recognize Israel as a Jewish State no matter what incentives Israel or the United States might offer him. He knows full well that such foolhardy behavior would land him on a concrete slab at the Muslim undertaker. Have you noticed that every map of “Palestine” that Abbas displays looks exactly like the entirety of Israel but with no references at all to a state called “Israel”? So much for a starting point for negotiations. We’re not talking borders here; we’re talking existence.

Now consider Meir-Levi’s two-part series, 31 Opportunities for Statehood Squandered in Favor of Genocide (part 1 and part 2). Starting with the Peel Commission report back in 1937 and tracing history for the next 74 years, he methodically explains how Israel for the most part was willing to make significant and painful concessions for peace only to be rebuffed by the Arabs. Please note – this was all before “settlements” – before “occupied territories”- yes, before all the so-called “obstacles to peace” that we hear about on a daily basis from world leaders, intellectuals and mainstream media. Unfortunately, a dumbed-down public trained to think in sound-bytes and slogans rarely stops to rationally analyze the hateful drivel that’s being fed to it.

“Having lived in Israel now for the last 12 years most of the material was familiar. But I did not know that (North Vietnamese) General Giap consulted Arafat. Here is a quote from page 28: ‘Ho’s (Ho Chi Minh) chief strategist, General Giap, made it clear to Arafat and his lieutenants that in order to succeed, they too needed to redefine the terms of their struggle. Giap’s counsel was simple but profound: the PLO needed to work in a way that concealed its real goals, permitted strategic deception, and gave the appearance of moderation: “Stop talking about annihilating Israel and instead turn your terror war into a struggle for human rights. Then you will have the American people eating out of your hand.’”

Read General Giap’s counsel (in red) to Arafat again. Not only have the American people (and especially our leaders) been eating out of the Palestinian Authority’s hands but most of the world has been doing likewise.